


When Rome's in ruins

by LithiumReaper



Category: Fall Out Boy
Genre: 5+1 Things, Fluff-kinda, M/M, Pining, Pre-Slash, Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-16
Updated: 2014-10-16
Packaged: 2018-02-21 10:41:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,624
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2465285
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LithiumReaper/pseuds/LithiumReaper
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>5 times Pete kisses Patrick, and 1 time Patrick kisses back.</p>
            </blockquote>





	When Rome's in ruins

**Author's Note:**

> So I've had this written for over two years now, and I just rediscovered it and finished it.  
> Title from FOBs Young Volcanoes (Duh).  
> I fucked with the timeline a little, so don't kill me!  
> Unbeta'd and all mistakes are my own. Please let me know if there are any errors.  
> Comments + Kudos = Love

1.  
The first time Pete kisses Patrick, they’re on the road as a band for the first time, sleeping in the back of a van that doubles as a death-trap and playing dingy clubs or house parties. They get paid in pizza, cheetos and the occasional futon in a funny smelling basement.

They’re on and it’s a good fucking show, even if most of the teenagers in attendance are stoned or drunk. Pete doesn’t mind, because he gets to see Joe blur around on their makeshift stage, Andy pound on his kit so hard that he occasionally lifts off of his seat and Patrick clutch his guitar to his chest so tight as if it can keep him safe from the occasional teenager screaming their lyrics back at them.

Later, when they’ve packed up their gear and they don’t have to get back on the road immediately, Pete presses his lips to Patrick’s, right in whoever’s kitchen while Joe and Andy are scrounging for food. Patrick freezes and stares at Pete when he pulls away. Pete keeps thinking that Patrick looks like a rabbit caught in the headlights of an oncoming truck, almost like he can see how the story will end. Pete feels a pang of hurt in his chest, like a tight squeeze that makes it hard to breathe for a second, a minute, an hour afterward. Pete pulls back from Patrick, grins and heads out of the back door. He gets a less than satisfying handjob from a pretty dyed-black-haired scene kid and resolutely doesn't think about Patrick when he comes.

They don’t talk about it.

:::

2.  
Pete finds him sitting on his haunches outside of the studio, back against the wall and staring at nothing in particular. 

“’Trick?” Pete whispers when he gets close enough to be sure that Patrick knows he’s there.

“We broke up.” Patrick says, voice calm, even. If Pete didn’t know Patrick as well as he does, he’d actually think that Patrick is okay with the demise of his relationship with Anna. He wants to tell Patrick that she’s like poison, a blind bitch who can’t see what piece of magic she let slip through her fingers. He doesn’t, but he’s pretty sure Patrick can read his mind and knows these things anyway.

“I’m sorry.” Pete whispers, going down on his haunches next to Patrick.

“It’s okay. Bound to happen, right?” Patrick snorts.

“No, hey Patrick, no.” Pete shuffles so that he’s facing Patrick. He has a thigh pressed against Patrick’s thigh and the knob of his kneecap in inches from Patrick’s goin, but it’s not sexual, no matter how Pete wishes it would be. “No, it wasn’t ‘bound to happen’ man.”

“What then Pete? Did she just magically decide that being with me wasn’t worth it anymore and that I’m just wasting years on a stupid dream?”

“She’s a bitch. She doesn’t deserve you man.” Pete cups Patrick’s jaw with both hands and pulls his face up.

“When did you turn into a twelve-year old girl?” Patrick teases lightly, but Pete can see the hurt that hides behind his small smile and the dullness of his eyes.

“I’ve always been one.” Pete teases back and grins big and wide. Patrick squeezes his knee and nods slightly and Pete can’t not kiss him. He presses a light kiss on the side of Patrick’s mouth.

Patrick doesn’t look at him, but accepts the hand Pete stretches out when he stands. “Come on, we should go save Joe from being beaten to death by Andy and his superior vegan-ness.”

Patrick doesn’t let go of Pete’s hand as they head back inside and Pete can’t help but think that when they make it big, he’ll send Anna a note and tell her exactly what a dumb fuck she is.

:::

3.  
Warped tour is intense, Mikey Way even more so in his own quiet way. Pete isn’t exactly sure when the last time was that he saw Patrick, that didn’t consist of sound check and their set. Granted, he hasn’t been on the bus in a while and when he is, he’s stumbling down to his bunk attached at the lips with Mikey. 

As warped tour ends, so does the summer fling and before Pete can properly blink, it’s the last night of tour and everyone is heading their own way, come morning. Pete has Mikey pressed to the side of someone’s bus, grinding up against him and licking into his mouth. Pulling back for a breath, Pete can’t bite back on his urge to cling to this thing between them and mouths his words against Mikey’s neck.

“You should call me after warped. We should do this again.” A sloppy kiss and too much saliva later, Mikey tells Pete that he doesn’t like being a second choice, but his hand is down Pete’s pants, so Pete doesn’t process his comment until he’s back on his own bus, squeezed in between Patrick and the arm on the lounge sofa. Patrick is a little drunk and halfway asleep, when Pete asks him what he thinks Mikey meant.

“I’unno. Maybe he thinks you’re in love with someone else.”

“What if I am?” Pete muses and the ache in his chest from so long ago flares. Patrick lifts his head from the back of the sofa and blinks at Pete.

“Cyber stalking Ashlee Simpson doesn’t qualify as being in love.” Patrick deadpans. Pete grins and pokes Patrick’s side. Patrick is just the right amount of tipsy that he doesn’t punch Pete for touching his abdomen.

“She’ll give in eventually.” Patrick snorts and pats Pete’s head. He deigns not to answer Pete, because Pete knows that Patrick’s wit doesn’t translate so well into words when he’s on the right side of drunk.

They sit in silence for a while and somewhere in between state-lines, Patrick falls asleep against Pete’s shoulder. Leaning forward and pressing his lips against Patrick’s doesn’t take much.

“I’m a little in love with you.” Pete whispers to Patrick and no-one in particular, half wishing that Patrick hears him, half wishing he doesn’t. Patrick snuffles against his shoulder and Pete sighs slightly.

“Yeah, I know.” Pete says to himself. Loving his best friend shouldn’t be this hard, yet here he is, confessing everything like an 80s cliché rom-com.

“Fuck my life.”

:::

4.  
After Pete is released from the hospital, he locks himself in his room for three months. His mom leaves food outside his door, but he rarely eats it, rarely sleeps and rarely showers. He pulls the covers over his head and wills the world away for a little while.

Patrick comes to see him every single day and after a while he doesn't leave. He sits against Pete's door and sings old Saves The Day, Greenday and Neurosis songs through the door. Pete writes the first note and pushes it under the door. He hears Patrick scramble up and the distance of his voice tells Pete that Patrick went to ask Pete's mom for a pen. They write notes like middle school kids, talking about everything and nothing. Pete slowly feels himself become more human, but he doesn't open the door. One night he writes 'xoxo' at the bottom of the page when he says goodnight.

When he finally emerges from his room the next morning, Patrick's there, but the note isn't.

:::

5.  
They're fighting again. It's all they seem to do nowadays. The tension is thick and Joe and Andy avoid them both like the plague. Pete hates that his and Patrick's issues are fucking up the band, but they don't stop fighting, even after Joe yells at them and Andy looks at them with sad eyes.

They're yelling at each other when Pete snaps and yanks Patrick's head closer and kisses him. There's a beat of silence and Pete does and doesn't expect the punch that lands on his jaw. Patrick doesn't say anything. He just stares at Pete. A week later they announce the hiatus. 

They don't talk about it.

:::

+1  
They're recording again, after four years. After marriages, divorces, babies and mostly not speaking for half of the hiatus. Patrick is laying down vocals for an upbeat track and Pete is sitting in the studio staring at him like Patrick is 16 again and he's like the sun rising after a night of rain.

Pete doesn't clench his hands anymore, not like he used to back in the day, when all he could think about was PatrickPatrickPatrick. Now he has a kid, a mortgage and a reality show and Patrick is still Patrick (if he's a little less Patrick, Pete doesn't say anything).

He's listening to Patrick singing about Rome being in ruins and the tune is just perfect. Pete can't help but think that this song, this song that's still labelled as 'Untitled #6', chronicals their lives up to this point and Pete finds himself not minding one bit.

That night, after Joe and Andy have left, and it's just the two of them listening to the day's recordings and feeling like teenagers again, Patrick turns to Pete and kisses him, right on the lips. He pulls back and smiles and Pete gives a huffy laugh of exasperation. He leans in and kisses Patrick and this time Patrick kisses him back.

Pete has a delirious thought about all roads and they all lead to Rome and he mumbles "when Rome's in ruins" against Patricks lips. Patrick quirks his eyebrow, but he gets it.

They don't need to talk about it as they fumble in the bright light of the studio.  


Three weeks later Pete sends a note. It says 'Dear Anna, you're a dumb fuck'. Patrick just laughs and gives him a sloppy kiss.


End file.
